Category Archives: MyPhoneHenge

Problem: People really like MyPhoneStone but not everyone is able to pledge 99 to get one. That makes me sad. Hmmm. What to do. Roger, being a problem-solver by nature does some analysis work to solve this one. And after some effort, voila!

Is it Six Sigma style process improvement? Agile Iterative development? Genius design? Good old Yankee ingenuity? Or did I just get lucky? In any case, I have found ways to streamline the production of the MyPhoneStone, maintaining consistency that matters for function and still enabling the artistic variations from one to the next that makes it art.

I have to admit, it’s a little tricky applying Six Sigma to something like this since the concept and the name itself of Six sigma refers to elimination of all variation from one unit to the next. Obviously, that goes exactly against my premise of each one of these items being a unique work, right? Well, not completely. Since this art/product has to perform a physical function as well as offer a unique expression, it simply means that I apply Six Sigma to the function part while maintaining the freedom to explore infinite variations in ways that do not impair performance. See, kinda tricky, huh? Well, I am proud to say, I have done it and more. In addition to even braoder artistic variation, I am also exploring functional options including cord management and even a built-in charge cord option. I’ll have some photos later. Right now I’m exhausted from working the entire weekend on this and MyPhoneHenge.

In any case, what it means is that I can produce more, better, in less time. So, I am able to give these little guys away more liberally without it amounting to me becoming my own sweat shop employee. The good news for you is that I can give away a lost double what I was planning initially. Or if these were for sale outright, I’d be dropping the price by almost half.

So, all to say that I am modifying my Kickstarter gifts to make the MyPhoneStone more available at a lower pledge amount. Donating at the new 52 dollar pledge is going to result in you having your own MyPhoneStone.

Those who have already donated at the 99 level are going to have their deal sweetened by a choice of either two MyPhoneStones or one Phone stone + two t-Shirts. I really appreciate those who were early contributors and I wish to show it! The old 99 Crush level will be phased out and replaced by a new version that reflects this lower amount. Look for the changes immediately on my Kickstarter page.

– roger

PS: Many of these MyPhoneStones will sport a rendition of the BigDesign logo, honoring the event and organization that inspired this whole genre of art and prodcuts in the first place.

I had to make sure that the base structure was solid and secure to be safe. – And it is!
I also had to make it easy to set up in a hurry – like for a conference – And it is.
I also thought it would be nice for it to have interchangeable parts. – And it does!
Above all, it has to be visually interesting, in fact downright compelling. Otherwise what’s the point? This is art, right? I find it pretty striking. A big orange plastic Industrial pallet, chopped off in the back in a jagged semi-circular shape to blend with the circular arrangement of this unit with its peers (of various colors, btw). A chunk of concrete joining it to the 6 ft smart phone frame into which I will place interesting objects.

Having neither the help of ancient Druids nor a permanent location in which to sink giant stones, I had to invent an alternative means for securing the base of these monoliths.

Raised bolts mount the frame onto the concrete – Tilt is totally adjustable by via the four locknuts – A secret learned working as an eletrician’s apprentice back in my college days. That’s how we set lamp posts into the ground to ensure their stragihtness.

I heard about this guy who built a giant smart phone in his living room. Oh yeah, that was me!

What’s that? A petroglyph? What’s that guy saying about the cow he’s chasing?

As our culture speeds headlong in this digital age, the slick aesthetic has reached toxic levels. This overdose of untouchable virtual brings with it a kind of sensory deficit. As much as we love the capabilities that the digital world brings, there is emerging with it a craving for the unabashedly earthy and rugged to soothe the senses.

Even as we celebrate the amazing community formed by these ubiquitous technologies on a purely human level, that same human sense of self strives to bring it all out from behind the glass and into the world we know.

My Favorite Machine is a celebration of the endearing nature of technology and design. In its presentation is a dichotomy; it both esteems and irreverently parodies the machines that are in our lives, past and present. Its sequel, MyPhoneHenge, promises to do the same on an even grander scale. MyPhoneHenge reaches even further into the past and across mediums and motifs, challenging the senses and stretching definitions of what constitutes Art about Technology. It celebrates community and the multiplicity of people and things converging into one time and space, simultaneously virtual and physical.

Seven foot tall smart phones made of unlikely materials, filled with interactive media displays, shakes the tree of visual contrasts. Like the previous art, the bold visual parody grabs audience attention while the combination of polish and necessary roughness intrigues the senses and rich conceptual irony engages the intellect. Whimsy and tongue in cheek humor is throughout, along with the plain and serious (every comedian needs a straight man). It’s deliberately rough and duplicitous. That to me makes it interesting and fun.

MyPhonehenge, as the name implies is a circle of monoliths, each a smartphone abstracted into an individual statement about technology, design, history, and the interaction of people to machines and people to people. Like its names sake, it is a dichotomy of mystery and blunt straightforwardness.

The materials and style begin with my own sculptural motif of negative and positive spaces rendered in ordinary steel and concrete. This is expanded to include electronics and various types of media integrated without concession to fashion etiquette. Use of industrial materials in their native form pushes this bold statement even further and connects the dots in time with elements of prehistoric, industrial, and digital ages. Transitions make no apology and rules are created and then broken as readily as in a jazz melody.

The shape defines not just a form, but a space. The audience can inhabit the space around and between the monoliths, and this is as much a part of the piece as the substance and media. The audience interacting in this space, freely touching objects and actually driving the media, is part of the art.

The BIG(D)ESIGN Conference has been an awesome cheerleader and a wonderful host providing me with the perfect venue to share these tech art concepts. My Favorite machine was a huge hit and I was invited back to do the sequel. Help me give them another art center piece to knock their socks off. Help me make this art which I believe speaks volumes about technology’s impact on contemporary culture.

For those that see the beauty and fun in these contrasts, I invite you to help me bring this vision into being.